Welcome Slappy. Seems like you're on the right spot. I would say give a real good read around on this forum. Their is already said some useful things about the questions you walk around with. For example:
http://www.clown-forum.com/costumes/...-costumes.html.
http://www.clown-forum.com/newbies-c...character.html
I also started with just try it out/pick it up while doing it. This is a good start. After this I folowed some training. This did gave me a real good push forward. So yes I'm with you Balloo and SaphireSue